PITT'S INTERNATIONAL STUDIES CENTER RECEIVES FORD GRANT TO EXPAND INTERNATIONAL DATABASE

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 12 -- Finding international affairs organizations and specialists world-wide will soon be much easier with the help of a new effort at the University Center for International Studies (UCIS) at the University of Pittsburgh, underwritten through a two-year, $200,000 grant from the Ford Foundation.

The grant will enable UCIS to create a World Wide Web-based interface for a database which will include 3,500 detailed entries on institutions active in international affairs, and to expand the database's scope and size. The original database was developed by ACCESS, a Washington, DC-based non-profit organization specializing in international affairs-related information services. It includes detailed contact information and can be searched by country, keyword and specialty.

The on-line database will benefit students, scholars and government, as well as non-government, international affairs practitioners. Locating and contacting organizations and individuals working in a particular international affairs-related field will be made easier. In turn, even small, specialized organizations around the world will attract attention of institutions and individuals in other countries by being listed in the database.

"This project offers great potential for integrating strengths from all of UCIS's component centers," said Wolfgang Schlör, assistant director for academic affairs at UCIS and principal investigator of the database project. "By using area, language, and international contacts throughout UCIS, we will be able to develop this database into a resource which benefits the international community world-wide."

Once this service is established, there will be no charge for its use. The on-line database will reside on the UCIS web site: www.ucis.pitt.edu.

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